1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to the preparation of text messages for transmission between devices. In particular, the present invention is directed toward the preparation of human-readable compressed versions of text messages.
2. Description of Related Art
Text messaging devices, such as two-way alphanumeric pagers, text-enabled mobile telephone, wireless portable digital assistants (PDAs), computers operating instant messaging software, and other like devices allow users to transmit short text messages to other messaging device users. Generally, the size of text messages that may be transmitted is limited to some pre-determined level.
Lossless digital data compression techniques, such as Huffman codes or Lempel-Ziv compression, can sometimes reduce the length of a text message, but require that the recipient of the message be capable of decoding the compressed data, as conventional compression renders a text message unreadable to humans. It should also be noted that because of necessary overhead associated with conventional compression algorithms, conventional lossless compression algorithms tend to be less useful for smaller messages.
Abbreviations, shorthand, and other human-readable forms of text shortening have been used for centuries to save time or writing space. Acronyms and abbreviations such as PERL (Practical Extraction and Reporting Language) and UML (Uniform Modeling Language) are especially prevalent in the computing arts, for example. The elimination of vowels is another known technique for reducing the length of text in a human-readable fashion. For example, SPEEDWRITING is a trademark for a form of shorthand in which short vowels are generally eliminated from words. The written Hebrew language actually dispenses with vowels altogether, as the Hebrew alphabet consists of only consonants. Words that convey little meaning, such as “the” are often eliminated from newspaper headlines, telegrams, and other media where space is at a premium (e.g., “Dog bites man,” rather than “A dog bit a man”).
Computer technology has been applied to the problem of shortening text in a human-readable way. U.S. Pat. No. 6,279,018 to Kudrolli et al. describes a system for abbreviating and compacting text to cope with display space constraints in computer software. Kudrolli et al. describe using a computer algorithm to abbreviate words and phrases in text according to a user-defined dictionary of abbreviations. Kudrolli et al. also describe applying compressive transformations to text, such as eliminating vowels and whitespace to further reduce the size of the text to a level that fits within length constraints.
The algorithmic compression and abbreviation provided by Kudrolli et al., however, is adapted for use by a single user specifying rules for displaying text on that user's display. The Kudrolli et al. reference is not directed toward shortening text messages for transport and subsequent interpretation by a recipient. What is needed, therefore, is a compression and abbreviation scheme that is adapted for use in shortening text messages for transport to a second text messaging device associated with a second user.